Dr. Saturday

Katherine Webb thanks Brent Musberger for her overnight fame

It’s been a little more than a month since Katherine Webb went from being girlfriend of Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron to media sensation.

Ever since ESPN broadcaster Brent Musberger mentioned Webb during the BCS National Championship broadcast and the cameras panned her way, Webb has been in Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue, on countless talk shows, filming a reality show and covering the Super Bowl for Inside Edition.

It’s been a whirlwind for Webb, who has tried to maintain her relationship with McCarron amidst the chaos, but one she credits to Musberger.

"Thank you for everything you've done and for helping my career and helping me make a new life for myself,” Webb told The Dan Patrick Show when asked if she had a statement for Musberger.

During the first quarter of what would be an Alabama thrashing of Notre Dame, ESPN cameras panned to Webb and Musberger and fellow broadcaster Kirk Herbstreit had the following exchange:

"You quarterbacks, you get all the good looking women," Musburger said. "What a beautiful woman."

"Wow!" Herbstreit said.

"Whoa!" Musburger chimed in.

"AJ's doing some things right down in Tuscaloosa," Herbstreit said.

"If you're a youngster in Alabama, start getting the football out and throw it around the backyard with pop," Musberger said.

Those few comments sent people flocking to the Internet to find out more about Webb and she gained nearly 75,000 Twitter followers during the three-hour game. Fans also commented on Musberger being inappropriate (a Twitter handle named “Creepy Musberger” was even created) and it prompted ESPN to force Musberger to issue an apology for spending so much time commenting about Webb. Webb has said multiple times that an apology wasn’t needed.

"Of course I didn't take offense to it," Webb told Dan Patrick. "It's kind of crazy for any woman to say that they would be offended, because every girl wants to be told that they're pretty and they're beautiful.”

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(USA Today Sports Images)

Webb told The Dan Patrick Show she had no idea a few seconds of airtime during the national championship would blow up like it did. At the time, Webb said she wasn’t even aware that so much attention was being paid to her as she was just there to support her boyfriend.

"I didn't find out until afterward,” Webb said of her instantaneous fame. “I had people coming up to me during the game. I had a few friends around me that were kind of letting me know what was happening, but I didn't know what was really happening until somebody that was sitting in the press box walked up to me afterward. … He was like, ‘You are the star of the game.'”

In what was otherwise a pretty dull national title game, Webb was one of the bright spots and she’s made the most of her newfound fame since.

“I was in Los Angeles and I was already modeling before, so all of this stuff that I'm doing is no strange thing to me,” Webb said. “I was actually having a hard time in Los Angeles booking jobs. … After all this happened, people started calling."

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